Exhibit offers snapshot of Annie Leibovitz’s influences

Arthur PollockThursday, July 05, 2012

Credit: Angela Rowlings

‘PILGRIMAGE’: Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz gives a gallery tour of her new body of work, ‘Pilgrimage,’ at the Concord Museum.

Arguably the most famous living American photographer, Annie Leibovitz has had a celebrated career, spanning four decades, primarily as a portraitist. She has worked most notably for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair among other corporate clients. Who could forget her poignant Rolling Stone cover photo of Yoko Ono with a naked John Lennon curled up beside her, taken only a few hours before his death? Or the startling image of Whoopi Goldberg submerged in a bathtub full of milk?

By her own admission, dealing with the pressures of commercial photo shoots, trying to make a compelling image that will boost the sales of a magazine can be fatiguing and hard on the soul. Leibovitz’s latest project “Pilgrimage,” now at the Concord Museum, started during her much-publicized financial crisis three years ago, was a welcome respite. There would be no people in the photographs, no celebrities to gawk at. It was personal, a pilgrimage to homes and favorite places of influential icons that moved her.

The 70 still lifes and landscapes that comprise this intimate show document artifacts that once belonged to these cultural figures. We see the television set that Elvis Presley fired a bullet into (according to legend, watching singer Robert Goulet on the tube led to Presley’s strong reaction). Annie Oakley’s riding boots and a small, heart-shaped target shot through dead-center are also on display, as are the well-worn gloves Abraham Lincoln had in his pocket the night he was assassinated. From artist Georgia O’Keeffe’s studio we see a mosaic of her homemade pastels, softly lit. It’s a beautiful picture.

Leibovitz also had a deep interest in Henry David Thoreau. She made several trips to Concord and photographed the bed he slept on at Walden Pond. Eight other Concord photos hang in the gallery, including one of the only surviving dresses belonging to Emily Dickinson. Ralph Waldo Emerson is represented by the hat he wore on his daily walks and a photo of his study with its hundreds of books, perhaps in tribute to Leibovitz’s late partner, writer Susan Sontag, for her love of words.

The reverent images are Leibovitz’s homage to the past. This low-key exhibit may not garner the acclaim that accompanies her powerful portraits but it is an insightful, loving look at influences that are dear to Leibovitz’s heart.

“Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage,” at the Concord Museum, through Sept. 23.